My First: Climbing Mount Apo

I keep getting late with my posts. This is bad.

Anyway, more than two weeks ago, me and my twin brother went to Davao to for a quick nature trip (no, it's not really that quick) to.. guess what? Mount Apo. The highest peak in the country. See, my twin bro's into mountaineering lately, along with his officemates. He's already climbed two mountains already. One co-worker planned for them to go to Davao just to spend a few days in the beach or maybe a quick tour, and Vito asked me if I wanted to go too. Of course I do! And I said yes (uhh. doesn't sound right). So anyway, during the week before the flight, his co-worker suddenly had the idea to climb Mt. Apo, instead of just strolling around town! The guys had no physical preparation for it, and it was my first time to climb a mountain, and Mt. Apo at that! But, oh well. Why not, right?

So we arrived in Davao International Airport at around 6 or 7 am (I forgot about the details of the trip, as I was too overwhelmed with being able to ride a plane for the first time). From there we took about one hour (I think?) of a jeepney ride to a nearby market, where we bought several necessities (tissue, batteries, plastic bags, etc.), then a bus ride to the nearest town somewhere at the foot of the mountain, and a mini-truck ride to the side of the mountain a little bit more upward the mountain. I won't be able to give much details about the rides for two reasons: one, I was too busy looking around when I'm awake, and two, I was too busy sleeping when I get my eyes closed.

at the first mini-truck. ©vgmarimat

We arrived at a small town, where we had our lunch before the climb. Let me try to describe the place: it was a very small town, but with their own computer shops, drugstores, a really big sari-sari store (where we bought our stash of alcoholic drinks), and several tiangge selling very affordable clothes. We watched the NBA Finals game 2 in the drugstore, where Dallas won over the Heat, bringing the series to a tie.

From there we rode on a smaller mini-truck, but was a really badass truck. It drove on the very (and I mean VERY) rocky road, like those shown on commercials with the prestigious pick-ups and 4x4s, but this one had a smaller frame, smaller wheels but a really impressive climb strength. And we even came across one kid, probably ten or eleven years old, and driving this thing like it's just a bumpcar in a carnival!

We stopped somewhere (again, forgive me for the lack of detail), hopped off the truck, filled our bottles and bladders, and began our ascent. We took the KAPATAGAN-KIDAPAWAN route, which was said to be the easiest. The first phase of the climb was the mildest part, where we only walked through small plantation farms and plots. Unfortunately, the first mistake that I did for this trip was stepping on a huge horse poo, thinking it was a stone. My entire shoe was buried in it. But I continued on, and we then arrived at our first stop, another small village in the mountains.

First stop. I left my jacket there.

Then we continued with our climb, passing through slippery and muddy tracks. Whenever we come upon a river, we stop and wash ourselves with the freezing water,

creek. ©vgmarimat

and move on. We stop by every now and then to take a quick snack and catch our breaths. It was a jungle out there, indeed, so just before total darkness falls upon us, we set up our tents and make camp.

the couple in the tent. ©vgmarimat

Come early morning, and I really had to pee and poo. So first thing I did when I went outside the tent was to find a good place to release the bad spirits. But then thinking about the breakfast and how I might feel this suffering again for this second day of the climb, so I held the latter for a bit more time, and released the former. Ahh. Nature.

We ate breakfast. And this is no ordinary mountain breakfast. We were served salted eggs with onions and tomatoes, scrambled eggs, adobo (which we had to save some for lunch) and the leftover sinigang from the past night.

cooking breakfast.

After the breakfast, while some are brushing their teeth or wrapping up their stuff from the tent, I was busy looking for my own secret garden. After passing by one spot taken by one of our members (yeah), I finally found one spot a bit deeper within the woods. Then I did the "deed." Again, ahh... nature.

So we continued our climb, where the first phase for the second day was a bit similar to the trail we went through the first day. Several muddy trails, trees blocking the way, and not to mention having to crawl below a stumbled tree. Considering the stuff we were carrying with us, it was a bit tricky, but it's part of the adventure. Our first destination for the second day was Godi-Godi, some kind of a stopover where we rested for a few minutes. We had to make the most out of this rest period, as the next part of the climb will be the second trickiest to our climb.

the team (without me of course) at Godi-Godi

The porters refilled our bottles and bladders at the nearest stream, we ate our energy bars, and after wrapping up, off we went again. The trail from Godi-Godi was initially the same as that before it, but then after reaching a particular section of the trail, I was totally (and I mean totally) amazed, overwhelmed, speechless, whatever you call it - at the next part of the trail: (pre) BOULDERS. We had to walk through a trail surrounded by small boulders (at this point only), where some vegetation was still visible. The sight was utterly breathtaking. From this point we could almost see the peak, but there's still some distance to it.

Ken. ©vgmarimat

As we proceed, I noticed the vegetation decreases in thickness. We were reaching the main Boulders stage of the climb. This time, it's a tough challenge. We had to crawl along boulders larger than our balls, even larger than our size. On the side of the mountain opposite to our direction we could see the sulfur puffing out of the mountainside. It was a great view, but still a scary climb. In my opinion, this was the scariest part of the climb, considering it was my first time to do mountain climbing.

me and ken on the boulders. ©vgmarimat

Along the way, we still took a few stops to rest and to have lunch. As we rested, some took pictures, not to mention at dangerous spots on the area. But that's for the pros. I'm no good at this kind of thing yet, so I passed this one.

Then we finally reached the crater of the mountain. We are almost at the peak at this point, but this one alone felt rewarding. Even though the water in the lake is not potable for drinking, we still enjoyed the view, and the soft vegetation beside the lake relaxed our tired muscles. We all felt the same way about the crater: ang ganda.

the crater (I forgot the name)

near the lake at the crater.

As I've previously mentioned, we are almost at the last part of our climb. The peak was very near to us at this point, so we decided to push through and pull out the last of our energies to the climb. But this one's not something to laugh at either; the trail was around 80+ degrees or so, and we only had two options to grip on: boulders, some of which were shaky, and the roots of the plants along the trail. I had to rest every ten steps to catch my breath and to keep my grip strong. But, we're almost there, so I pushed through.

a view from almost the top.

We kept pushing and pushing our energies through the trek (well at least I did, again they are experienced mountaineers already, so they know what to do), and finally, the most rewarding part of the climb, we reached the highest peak in the Philippines. We were above the clouds. We can see the sea of clouds. This was no match to the Everest, but still, for someone like me who did this for the very first time, I was so glad I joined these guys. Words won't be enough to describe it, so just check out these pictures.

the sea of clouds.

me and the sea of clouds.

the couple and the sea of clouds. Sweet, right?

the couple and Ken (Shak's bro)

The team. Unforgettable. :)

They even did jump shots, which I was not able to do for some reason. Prolly forgot about it. So that was my experience of the climb. This post's getting too long, so I might post a part two for the descent.

EXTRA! EXTRA! EXTRA! EXTRA! EXTRA! EXTRA! EXTRA! EXTRA! EXTRA!

We got to see Romy Garduce, the first known Filipino to climb the everest, shooting for the show Born to be Wild (GMA7).

Anver and Romy Garduce. (Did I spell it right for both names?)

My first TT Hongli: 1/144 High Grade Seravee/Seraphim Gundam, Trans Am Ver.

Some of my fellow fans in the Gundam universe may have not noticed this yet, but aside from Bandai kits, I also collect a few knock offs. Recently, I've bought a Model Comprehend (MC) kit, a knock off brand making imitations of NeoGrade kits. NeoGrade is a Korean manufacturer of exotic resin kits. You may check their website here.

Other than the Model Comprehend line, probably the most famous knock-off brand in the industry since the Ben Di era, is the TT Hongli series. There's been a debate on how these guys could continue production of knock-off kits, and questions on how they are able to produce such complex material and "toy engineering" that are almost as exact as those from Bandai. Only that, TT Hongli plastic is of a lower quality in several parameters. That, I will discuss later on.

So anyway, the very first TT Hongli Gundam I've ever bought, is the 1/144 High Grade Seravee/Seraphim Gundam, Trans Am version.

Seravee Gundam, Trans Am ver.

Truth is, I'm only intersted in getting a Seravee Gundam that time. From the review done by popular YouTube user Prime92, when it was mentioned that the Seravee can do a lot of poses even though it's got a bulky body, it instantly caught my attention and my "inner hunger" for Gundam kits. So I went online and browsed for Gundams, and I was led to the online store/ads site sulit.com.ph, where a certain member was selling this and available for shipment. I got nervous, of course, for it was my first time ordering from this site. So I joined the site, made a few inquiries, and made the deal. Here's something interesting: I was living in an apartment in Los Baños, Laguna that time, and I was so excited that I couldn't wait for the weekend, and so I didn't demand for the package to be delivered at my provincial address, and I did not know my college address either. Instead, I ordered for the package to be delivered right to my laboratory in the Biological Sciences Building in UPLB! Pretty awesome! Imagine the torment of keeping myself focused on my laboratory work while I anxiously wait for my package to come. And finally, it arrived.

So anyway, indeed this kit could do a lot of poses. In terms of articulation, it could do pretty much the same as like in the Bandai version. Head movement, Shoulder rotation, double joints of the elbows and knees, and the feet could also wiggle. The hands, however, could not, and would only be able to rotate 360°.

Seravee Gundam holding its GN Bazooka

Being a knock-off, of course this kit has several problems. First, the head basically looks like the Bandai version from afar, but a closer look shows that the face armor mold has a slight glitch near the eyes (Apologies for not having any photo of the feature). The upper part of the body should be able to move below the chest, but the polycap joint was just too tight to allow movement. The hand armor (the piece below the knuckles) is too loose and pops off quite easily, so it needs a bit of gluing. Nevertheless, for display purposes, I love this kit.

Gundam Seravee Action Pose

One more reason why I bought this kit, is that it includes another model kit, hence it's a "two-in-one" kit, as how the seller kept telling me (yeah, it's obviously salestalk). In the Bandai version it's also a two-in-one kit, but it's kind of hard to find here in the Philippines (I think). The other model is the one detached from the Seravee in one episode in Gundam 00 Season 2.

The Seraphim Gundam.

1/144 High Grade Seraphim Gundam, Trans Am ver.

This kit has got a lot to offer in terms of posability. Head rotates well and goes up and down farther than that of Seravee's, shoulders move higher, knees are also double jointed and if you tinker with it more you could actually make it's foot reach it's own ass. This feature is necessary since it could transform back to its backpack mode, then could also be attached to the Seravee.

Problems with this kit, is that one, it's hand armor is also very loose. I used thin cement on this one too. I refrain from using superglue (Mighty Bond, Bulldog, etc.) since from earlier experiences as a gundam collector, whitening occurs on some areas of superglue application. Another thing, which is also a problem with the Bandai version, is that it's feet are way too small for independent posing on a standing position. So I display it on my room, mounted on an action base. Still, it could do poses excellently.

Seraphim Gundam, Action pose

So, in comparison with the Bandai version which, I have actually seen because my twin brother bought one from HongKong thru a friend of mine, overall articulation is pretty much the same, except for the loose parts. Those loose parts from the TT Hongli version, are very secured and perfectly fitted in the Bandai version. One thing you should expect from TT Hongli lines is that its plastic is not too bad, but slightly below average. From what I've experienced in building TT Hongli kits, pieces are a bit hard to cut off from the runners, a little painful to peg into proper holes, and has those several markings which are not too significant in terms of building but can catch your eye when in display, and will be obvious that it's a knock off.

Would I recommend buying knock-off kits? Well yeah, for a few reasons:

• If you are a beginner and doesn't have much money, you could opt for these. Some High Grade kits cost only 200, and thus you could expect a lower price for lower-grades. But still, for beginner gundam collectors, it's much better for you to buy those First Grade or No-Grade Bandai kits. It's your choice; either will do you good.
• If you are an advanced collector and wants to try out modding gundam kits - either by paint job or by doing the battle-damaged modification, you should definitely buy these knock-offs. I wouldn't recommend damaging the precious Bandai kits. Moreover, modding these knock-offs to create a better one will also improve your modding skills.
• If you're really, really, really, really, really, really, really (yeah I totally love My Girlfriend is a Gumiho) desperate to add gundam kits to your collection, and you don't have much money to begin with, then this is a must buy. As mentioned, knock-off kits are sold at very low prices, especially if you buy from the stalls directly instead of buying online (Online stores have mark-ups and added fees - you pay for the shipping, of course). I have my own share of buying knock-offs from Divisoria. Click here if you'd like to hear my story. There's an extra flavor there. :D

My reason for buying knock-offs? The last two.

Magalawa Island, A Somewhat Hidden Paradise

I'm pretty late for this post. It's been a week since me and my girlfriend joined her fellow org alumni in their summer escapade. We were almost unable to come, due to a bit of financial delays, but we made it in the nick of time to decide to push through with it. I needed a vacation anyways.

So we met early in the morning at EDSA central (Promdi here. ^_^), then after buying a few final needs, we began our travel. It was a 7 - 8 hour travel from the Metro, all the way up north. I wasn't very much familiar with the route - we passed through NLEX, Subic, then Olongapo, then finally in Zambales. That's what I remember so far.

We stopped by at the house of one of our companions, had lunch and very sweet Mango, then continued our drive. We passed through several rice fields and residential areas, and seemingly no signs of any beach or island port, then from the main road we turned left somewhere (I don't really know. Honestly it was a very unfamiliar travel for me LOL), then drove through a very rocky road (where a few tricycle drivers even overtook us), then finally made it to a small port, with the boats waiting for us. We rented two boats - one for the group, the other for the bags etc., and then finally, we made it here: Magalawa Island.

beachfront. ©Adyboy Paboy

The island is located in Palauig, Zambales. We were greeted by employees of Ruiz Resort (I think?), and they were very friendly. Some were old ladies who carried our bags. No hotel rooms or anything, but a much better approach was used: you could choose between two accomodations - one, you could rent a small nipa hut, with a bamboo bed fairly large enough for a few people to sleep into, or you could opt for a cottage, and bring tents instead. We chose the second option, and set up three tents.

The beach was simply breathtaking. Once we set foot on the island, brought our stuff to the cottage, set up our tents and changed into appropriate beach outfits, we took a dip into the clear waters of the resort. We could even see the seafloor even from our cottage. We didn't even mind the heat of the sun at around 3 pm.

Jeka and Flor enjoying the beach. ©Rowal Autriz

One good thing about the beach is that it was still clean. I learned from our companion that the island was semi-commercialized, and the management makes an effort to maintain the natural conditions of the beach. We even got to see several starfishes, although these seem to be the common type. But it's still a wonderful sight.

starfishes! ©Rowal Autriz

Come late afternoon, and we had to prepare dinner. We were brought to a "cooking area," the only area in the resort for customers to cook barbecue and rice. The villagers/employees kept providing us with panggatong used to make fire, and even assisted us with starting the fire.

cooking dinner. ©Rowal Autriz

After a night of merry making (yes, we totally had fun, not minding the dangers of the predicted "doomsday"), and some of us went to rest afterwards (some were awake the whole night), this is one thing you're to wait for everytime you go to the beach: the sunrise. They were lucky enough to witness the sunrise, and from the photos alone, it was breathtaking. Oh yes, I keep referring to these recent events on a third person viewpoint because.. I was asleep during the sunrise, and woke up at 8:30 in the morning, the sun was already high.

sunrise. ©Adyboy Paboy

There was this one spot in the island not far from the beach we were in - a wide area of beach, like a small peninsula (at least that's how I could describe it). On this area, several visitors come and do various things. There was even one group that played frisbee. Or you could also just lay down on the sand and enjoy the view. And of course, the ever-famous jump shot.

jumpshot on the wide sand. ©Rowal Autriz

Another great thing about this island is that even though several visitors come and go, other than being clean and well-maintained, the atmosphere is very peaceful. If you go to Boracay and experience the beach and its wild parties, then here in this island it is very peaceful, and somehow I noticed that everyone seems to exude positive attitude.

So if you'd like to spend the last out-of-town on the beach just before summer totally ends this year, and want it to be peaceful yet fun-filled, then this is the place to be. This must be one of the cheapest possible travel destinations out there. We were only eleven people, rented one van, and overall cost (transpo, rent, food) for each person was less than Php 2,000. This could even go less if we had a few more with us.

Here are some other details, if you're interested:

• Entrance to island + Boat transfer: Php 200/head
• Parking fee (you can trust these guys to guard your vehicle well) Php 150, overnight
• Cottage rental: Php 2,000

For more details on the resort, visit this page: AngIslaKo

I'd also like to recommend the transportation we rented for the trip. The van driver was with his son in the duration of our trip. Very friendly, and knows his destinations well. Here are the contact details of the driver:

Mr. Paige Aguilar (with son, Lloyd)

+63 916 778 9147

DISCLAIMER: I do not own the photos, as properly credited below. Author is also not associated with the site in any way, except for some of the companions. The island experience is based on my personal standpoint, at least how I could describe it.

Credits to:

Adyboy Paboy (Photos)

Rowal Autriz (Photos)

http://angislako.blogspot.com/

Retro: The 1/144 No Grade Wing Gundam Zero

Yeah, I know it's a lot more interesting to post new models of Gundams instead of using stuff that started back in 1995-1996, but hey, you still gotta give the old school some respect.

Like the Wing Gundam Zero Type, which in my opinion maybe one of the best kits in its generation.

Now this is a very old kit. My twin brother used to have one when we were starting out in our Gundam fandom, but we both lost our old kits when our house was renovated. Prolly they're now buried within the walls of our house. LOL.

Recently, Bandai has been releasing some old kits from old series such as Gundam Wing and Gundam X. These kits are no-grades, which, according to some collectors, were considered as High Grades during the '90s. Anyway, I was browsing the very few Gundam kits sold in a nearby mall, and when I saw this kit I instantly picked it up and bought it. You don't get to see brand new old kits sold these days.

And amazingly, it's got great articulation for its scale and generation. (Yeah like I haven't noticed that before LOL). Head moves 360°, arms rotate around the shoulder, so does the torso around the waist. Old kits used to have this one piece of rear skirt, so the legs doesn’t really go far back. No grades also have the knees bent on two joints, and the amount of detail on this old kits is tremendous. Considering that it is a No Grade, and a kit that was manufactured for more than ten years ago, this kit can do a lot of poses.

The only problem that I have with this kit is the elbow joint, where it bends forwards... and backwards, which can make it look like it dislocated its elbow. I think if you knew how to do a battle damaged detail on this kit it would be great to have that feature, but for a basic collector it's a problem, especially when carrying the buster rifle which is a bit heavy, so if you want to stabilize how it holds the rifle you'd have to apply either thick paint or thin cement on the joint (but not necessarily while it's assembled; you have to apply it ONLY on the hole where the polycap joint is pegged on the lower arm) to thicken the joint and make it less loose.

Ahh, the signature pose of the Wing Zero. Although this makes the buster rifle less heavy for either arm, but after applying thick paint on the elbow joint it can hold the rifles better now.

Another bargain for this kit is its ability to transform. Here we see the Wing Zero on its bird mode. Transformation is simple and easy to do. I just wish it could be mounted on an action base to be able to display this kit in this mode.

The wings were molded in white, and I only painted it based on the anime details. I was inspired by YouTube user vegeta8259 when I was browsing Gundam reviews and bumped into his review on the Wing Zero.

If you want a more detailed review on this kit, I recommend going into his video review on the Wing Zero.

Resurrection: 1/144 FG Gundam Virtue

Yes! I gave this particular blog the "resurrection" headline, as it deserves to be called like so because I haven't blogged for a LOOOONG time. I have been busy the past few months, sans the continued collection of my treasures, and here we go.

To start off.. again, I give you, the 1/144 First Grade Virtue.

It was bought out of impulse, actually. I never really planned to buy first grades at some point, since I thought it was a waste of money to spend on something that's not so articulate. However, this model does not disappoint at all. True, it could only do a few basic poses here and there, but considering the bulkiness of the unit, it could actually do a lot more that what you might think. Here are a few poses:

Most of the molds were only in a few colors, and there were only white ones, black molds, and a few yellow pieces. Therefore, I had to use Metallic Green Gundam Marker to give detail to the GN drive, and I tried to do a titanium finish on the part along the waist, using the method recommended by Prime92 (from YouTube, see references at the bottom): I painted the bottom layer Aluminum Silver Tamiya Paint, allowed it to dry, then added a thin layer of Clear Red Tamiya Paint on top of the aluminum layer. I allowed it to dry well first before adding a second layer of the Clear Red paint to make it appear clean and evenly spread out.

For the GN Bazooka, I used a Flat Black Tamiya Paint, and a Lemon Yellow Tamiya Paint.

Yeah, I use tamiya paint most of the time. It's cheap!

Of course, as how I've always believed, mounting it on an action base makes it more alive,

since it gives a lot more room for poses.

So there you have it, the 1/144 First Grade Virtue Gundam. I plan to set up one album per kit from this point on, and other pictures too. Well, except for my thesis shots, of course.

Paint technique learned from:

Prime92: http://www.youtube.com/user/Prime92

How-to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3EbBVuHZNE&feature=relmfu

GUNDAM: Just the few shots

This time around, I decided to upload a few shots of my humble (literally; I lost several of them a few years back) collection of Gundams. I tried a few poses here and there after being delighted at the sight of two of my Gundams: one, successfully panel-lined, and the other, color-painted a bit amateurish. Oh well. Still made good poses though!

Model: Gundam Exia

Appeared in: Season 1

The thing about this model is that it is only a First Grade (FG). That's what made it important for me to paint some parts to add detail to the gundam. I used acrylic paint mixed with water and a few Tamiya paint, but somehow the texture seemed wrong. Maybe I did something wrong. But it was also panel-lined, and that did the job on some parts.

Gundam Exia, full body rear angle view

Model: 0-Gundam, Rollout Colour Version

Appeared in: Season 1, Ep 1

This Gundam is a rollout colour version of the 0-Gundam, the very first gundam which appeared in the Gundam 00 series, piloted by Ribbons Almark. It came in the box with mostly only grey and white-colored gundam plastic (gunpla) parts, a few red pieces, and a clear piece to cover for the GN Drive in its chest. Of course the polycap pieces are included, but the thing is the version doesn't contain much colors to add enough life to the model. But adding the panel lines just made it look more multi-dimensional, in my opinion. The yellow pieces you see in this shot are just stickers, and you do have the option to paint them, but I decided not to because I haven't experienced much gundam painting yet. From my experience in the Exia, I'm glad I decided not to.

0-Gundam, front view semi close-up. Panel lines in detail.

Here are more action shots of the two models:

Battle mode, 0-Gundam vs. Gundam Exia

One great item included in the 0-Gundam package is the GN feather. This is like the "wings" of the gundam, and based on the series these are particles emitted from the engine of the gundam. In the series, though, the particles were released so elegantly from the 0-Gundam that it did seem like wings. The GN feather did come in colored, with the inner section and some sections of the item transparent. Some dots in the item were also transparent, to give the effect of the "particle release" and showing a rather realistic effect. However, you'd only get to see the effect when light is behind it, so I tried using my laptop as the light source. I sprayed green on a blank canvas in Adobe Photoshop, and it added effect to the GN feather.

These are only some of the poses I came up with for my gundams, and later on I'll be posting some more action poses for these. I have to come up with a good background though. I only had my working table as a background. It'll surely be great! Keep visiting!